Forum Home
PC World Chat
Thread ID: 123058	2012-01-31 17:49:00	100 Dick Smith stores face closure - founder on warpath	Trev (427)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1256808	2012-02-01 00:22:00	If the customer service from the lower Hutt branch/ westfield is anything to go by, its no wonder they are closing down. Went in there last week, there was two people in front of me who ended up walking away in disgust, while waiting one made a comment he had been standing at the counter for almost 10 minutes, the other guy mumbled something but I didn't hear it fully, both ended up walking away since no one was serving, the stupid thing was one staff member was on the phone gas bagging about the weekend - you could hear what he was talking about, the other staff members were all hanging around the isles trying to look intelligent .(wasn't working) ;) Then when I finally got served all I wanted was a Micro SD card for my phone which they had behind the counter- the twit said they didn't have the cards separately but would quite happily sell me a card with the adaptor - which I didn't want. Came up with some BS excuse you cant get the SD cards without the adaptor. It was double the price at DSE, so ended up going to vodafone and getting what I needed, even with a crowed vodafone shop, got served within a couple of minutes. This isn't the first time either with DSE - theres been many times people get pissed off waiting while the staff muck about and they simply walk out.	wainuitech (129)
1256809	2012-02-01 00:37:00	If the customer service from the lower Hutt branch/ westfield is anything to go by, its no wonder they are closing down. Went in there last week, there was two people in front of me who ended up walking away in disgust, while waiting one made a comment he had been standing at the counter for almost 10 minutes, the other guy mumbled something but I didn't hear it fully, both ended up walking away since no one was serving, the stupid thing was one staff member was on the phone gas bagging about the weekend - you could hear what he was talking about, the other staff members were all hanging around the isles trying to look intelligent .(wasn't working) ;) Then when I finally got served all I wanted was a Micro SD card for my phone which they had behind the counter- the twit said they didn't have the cards separately but would quite happily sell me a card with the adaptor - which I didn't want. Came up with some BS excuse you cant get the SD cards without the adaptor. It was double the price at DSE, so ended up going to vodafone and getting what I needed, even with a crowed vodafone shop, got served within a couple of minutes. This isn't the first time either with DSE - theres been many times people get pissed off waiting while the staff muck about and they simply walk out. Same story with the store here in Whangarei. Waited about 10-15 minutes before I got served while the staff stood around or disappeared out the back when the shop got busy. That was over a year ago, haven't been back since.	CYaBro (73)
1256810	2012-02-01 00:53:00	Same story with the store here in Whangarei. Waited about 10-15 minutes before I got served while the staff stood around or disappeared out the back when the shop got busy. That was over a year ago, haven't been back since. Besides the shrinking range of things you could buy - they finally turned me of with the constant warranty extension nonsense. When asked if they would stand by their products under Consumer Guarantees Act - the reply was "only if you take us to Court". JB Hi-Fi are better for portable hard drives, laptops, TV's etc - the internet is better for everything else. Ascent would easily be my preferred supplier - great service and no hassles when something goes wrong, they fix it up.	Twelvevolts (5457)
1256811	2012-02-01 01:18:00	They sneakily revoked their policy of taking returns for change of mind with no warning except a little tiny sign on the counter a few months ago as well. That was one of the few reasons left to buy from them. I had an intermittent problem with an alarm clock, and because it didn't do it when I was in the store, they wouldn't exchange it.	ryanjames.powell (13554)
1256812	2012-02-01 03:54:00	Seems also like brand erosion, maybe due to lack of marketing/advertising; e.g. in Manukau Central for DSE despite their massive, but low customer usage store. Always large and constant newspaper ads and brochures for Bond & Bond, JB, Harvey Normans, Noel Leemings, etc. Maybe also younger consumers readily identify/purchase with those latter stores simply due to better and consistent "in your face" advertising, and more flexible HP options for PC purchases.	kahawai chaser (3545)
1256813	2012-02-01 04:09:00	Same story with the store here in Whangarei. Waited about 10-15 minutes before I got served while the staff stood around or disappeared out the back when the shop got busy. That was over a year ago, haven't been back since. Haha, I must look shady or something. Whenever I go to the same store, within a minute I have about 3 staff around me. #1: Can I help you sir?.. #2: Is there something you're actually looking for?.. and #3: Are you sure you've got the right shop? Makes me laugh.	Catweazle (2535)
1256814	2012-02-01 04:32:00	I posted here about May last year how I went into DSE here to buy 10 blank CDs at about 4:40pm 2 staff were doing something at the software stands and 1 was on the phone. I went to stand where the CDs were and picked out what I wanted and went to the counter. Stood there for 5 mins and when no one served me left the CDs on the counter and walked out. Went to The Warehouse got the CDs I wanted went to the counter and was served strait away. Went into DSE about a fortnight later and the staff were over me like flys. :)	Trev (427)
1256815	2012-02-01 05:51:00	Pretty wank move taking out all the electronic parts like fuzes, switches, resistors etc. And the dumb as dirt talk to the techspurts advertising. I have a trade card for getting the electrical/electronic stuff and when I went to buy say a switch quite often walked out with something else. No reason to go there now. Jaycar management must be doing an ipi tombhi leap around now.	prefect (6291)
1256816	2012-02-01 06:04:00	Yeah, I share much of the experiences and sentiment already stated here. The availability on the internet of a greater range of components has kicked the heart out of selling capacitors, resistors etc. Luckily a local Jaycar store still fills the void for those times when I want it NOW! Walked out of the local DSE after waiting forever to buy an external drive. However, have made 2 significant purchases in recent times as they had the best price for what I wanted. One was a laptop that I've already mentioned here, which I believe they'd priced incorrectly (had a good GPU at a low-end price). The other was a TV which was going cheaper than another major chain was selling it at. While on that subject of TV's, I broused through Harvey Norman, and they had all their small/mid size TVs playing the same really foul music video that had presumably been recorded to DVD at a crappy low bitrate. There were artifacts everywhere, and barey any sections of video that weren't cut to another scene within a second, making it impossible to seriously compare the units. Possibly it's a deliberate strategy to make the small/mid size sets look nasty compared to the big (high margin) sets which were hooked up to professional DVDs (often cartoons with highly saturated colours to make them look better still). If it were the first store I'd gone to it probably would have soured me of the smaller sets, but as I'd already shopped around and knew what I wanted it actually soured me seriously of buying from Harvey Norman (who were significantly dearer than DSE as well. It's hard to fathom how HarvNorm hope to sell these TVs when playing a video that looks so poor. They had 3/4 of the floor area for these TV's playing @#$%, so it seems hard to believe they were deliberately trying to push the bigger units instead.	Paul.Cov (425)
1256817	2012-02-01 06:08:00	Their mistake was getting rid of all the electronic components and just selling tv's and iPods. I used to spend literally hundreds of dollars at DSE before they changed all their stores. Now they just sell the same stuff you find in all the other stores. Such a shame. I goto Jaycarr now... Absolute idiots competing in the toaster range.	mikebartnz (21)
1 2 3